tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7296606518210633585.post5586797154034116505..comments2024-02-06T22:19:13.028-08:00Comments on Mining Aśvaghoṣa's Gold: SAUNDARANANDA 10.6: As If in Zero Gravity, the Two StandMike Crosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12712396374023835678noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7296606518210633585.post-66041157674486642802011-05-27T10:41:08.323-07:002011-05-27T10:41:08.323-07:00Sitting with the mind
is deciding to sit
not like ...Sitting with the mind<br />is deciding to sit<br />not like that<br />-- for example: <br />not like a grimly determined ascetic,<br />not like a preacher of propriety, <br />not like a fuss-pot,<br />not like a know-it-all ...<br /><br />Being fortunate enough to have all these tendencies, and more, I have got plenty of raw material to work on ...Mike Crosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12712396374023835678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7296606518210633585.post-49571257494227186972011-05-27T07:07:29.393-07:002011-05-27T07:07:29.393-07:00Hi Andrew,
What you seem to be describing is two ...Hi Andrew,<br /><br />What you seem to be describing is two kinds of mental activity, both of which are different from sitting. But Dogen in the chapter titled "The Samadhi that is King of Samadhis" is discussing sitting itself. <br /><br />The original words are 心の打坐 (sitting of mind, sitting with the mind, mental sitting) and 身の打坐 (sitting of body, sitting with the body, physical sitting). <br /><br />People who practise what they call "sitting meditation" or "seated meditation" (two words) generally see their practise as mental meditation in the context of physical sitting. <br /><br />Others who practise what they call "just sitting" are liable to see their practice, one-sidedly, as physical sitting -- thus Gudo Nishijima's description of Zazen as "a kind of physical gymnastics." <br /><br />The difficulty, I think, is in understanding sitting (not meditating) as a mental activity -- thinking, but not as people generally understand the word thinking. Thinking as the mental side of sitting. Thinking as that which causes sitting to be not only a manifestation of unconscious reaction to the stimulus of the idea of sitting upright, but a more enlightened response. <br /><br />Back in 1998, when I tried to explain this aspect of sitting practice to Michael Luetchford, MJL shook his head and said, "Oh I see. The situation is even worse than I thought." But actually MJL hadn't seen anything. He didn't understand what I was going on about. He was hearing me through the one-sided filter of Gudo Nishijima's Buddhist view, in which thinking has no role in Zazen, except as a target for negation.Mike Crosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12712396374023835678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7296606518210633585.post-88118374669457280942011-05-27T05:23:47.786-07:002011-05-27T05:23:47.786-07:00Hi Mike,
"Dogen said that there is sitting w...Hi Mike,<br /><br />"Dogen said that there is sitting with body which is not the same as sitting with mind, and sitting with mind which is not the same as sitting with body. These words are by no means easy to understand. Just sitting, so they say, is body and mind dropping off. At the same time, as Dogen saw it, body was body, and mind was mind. The two stood."<br /><br />Is "sitting with the body" the state when we are more inclined towards noticing or experiencing our physical existence, and "sitting with the mind" when we are more inwardly directed or noticing thinking? Can it be that simple? <br /><br />"These words are by no means easy to understand".<br /><br />So I guess it can't be... right?Andrewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08122736799069313026noreply@blogger.com